Coming Home
by DudeInthebox
Summary: crossover.
1. Chapter 1

_da dude reporting for duty_

Mary opened her eyes. There was fire everywhere.

I have to escape.

She took her daughter's hand and reached for the ship but before she could she was grabbed from behind.

* * *

"Where is my mother?" The men did not offer any explanation, they kept walking the dark corridor. They entered a dark room where a man with dark blond hair and dark blue eyes sat, his expression looked grin and his smile was forced.

"At ease gentlemen, you can sit." He said to the little girl once they left.

"Katherine do you know who I am?"

She shook her head.

"I am your uncle's uncle, Edward Seymour. Me and my wife have been searching for you for a long time, you are going to live with us now."

"What about my mother?"

"Your mother is very sick but don't worry she will taken care of."

The little girl shook her head. "No I want my mama!"

"Katherine please, don't make this harder than it is. Your mama has been diagnosed with a serious illness, it will be months, maybe years before she is herself again. You will be with us in the meanwhile, you are going to be very happy here. We have a big house and toys, you can have as many as you wish to."

"I do not want your toys. I want my mama."

"I am sorry Katherine but I cannot allow you to see your mother. Philippe!" He called his secretary. A tall dark skinned man with a 'T' birthmark on the left side of his face came in. "Take mistress Seymour to her chambers."

"My name is Katherine Tudor."

"It will be Seymour from now on. Your new governess will be there shortly to get you acquainted with the rules of the manor."

Philippe bowed to his master and signaled to the girl to do the same. She didn't, she spun around and followed Philippe to her new chambers.

Mary wiped the tears from her eyes with the former Duke's handkerchief. "Thank you."

"You shouldn't be thanking me. I saved your daughter's life not yours. I risked a lot just to find you."

"Why are you doing this for me Edward after what I ..."

"You did." He finished for her." Sleeping with another man behind my back, disobeying your father and plunging an entire planet into war just for your devotion to false prophet who not only lied to you, but lied to the entire galaxy."

"You always had a flare for the dramatic." Edward added when she remained silent. "I never imagined that your love for him would go this far."

"I did love you. I wanted to be loyal to you."

"You weren't." He snapped, his icy tone cut her like a knife. "You claim you love me, but you were really in love with my position and the power I wielded. I would have helped you in your elevation, returning to your father's graces and influencing him so he would put you back in the line of succession. You never loved me, I was nothing but your boy toy."

"That is not true. I did love you and I tried so hard to be faithful but I couldn't do it. You didn't keep your promise. You said that we would be together, once the King granted you a divorce but he never did, in fact you never wanted to leave your wife. I was just as much toy as you were to me."

"So you do admit it?"

"I admit many faults but not this. I did love you and what we had was special ... at least to me."

Edward smirked cruelly. "It's funny how you have selective memory." He took a step forward, grabbed her arm and forced her up.

"Ned-"

"Is that what you called him too when you made love to him? The great daughter of Katherine of Aragon and Henry the Eighth and the chosen one. How romantic."

"Edward why are you doing this? You said it yourself you hate me."

"No Mary, I don't hate you but I can't forgive what you did. You hurt me and you hurt the country you claimed to love. You took everything that you once stood for and gave it to that man. Now he and the emperor rule Earth and we are nothing more but a memory, our dynasties nothing more but a fantasy they tell their children at night."

"I am sorry."

Ned let her go. "You are not sorry, you are many things but apologetic is not one of them. You and your mother wrecked this country, she with her lie and you with yours. Just what did you expect being with him? Did you believe the chosen one would really abandon his career, his position as the Chancellor's main aide and his council seat for you?"

"He said he loved me and he did not have to wait for his master's permission, he did what was needed."

"Yes, what was needed for his breeches! He sent you to this hell and abandoned you just as your father abandoned your mother but I guess that is how Tratasmara women love to be treated like mere chattel." He turned around, unable to see her tears because he knew that if he locked his eyes with her he would forgive her and go down on his knees asking for forgiveness as well. Damn minx, that is how far she had enchanted him!

All my life, he thought, all I ever wanted to be was like her grandfather, the great half Welsh half English hero, the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII who had escaped from Yorkist clutches and sailed to Brittany and conquered England twelve years after while still young and strong.

Edward wanted to emulate him and like the good old king, he wanted to make a good fortune through marriage. Anne had not been his first choice but he never married Anne for love, he had learned that lesson well when he divorced Catherine. Women were not to be trusted but Anne was good looking and she was good in bed, despite their bed not being the only one she in, and she had good money. Her stepfather had a lot of influence in court and he was the main reason why Edward was able to triumph in his pursuit in pushing Jane in the King's path. That had been his greatest success.

When he met the Princess though, he was struck by her beauty and her cunning. She was innocent though so that would have to be cultivated if she wanted to succeed in returning to her father's succession and after Edward was born he knew his nephew was sickly so it was only a matter of time before Henry Tudor named Mary as his second heir. But year after year they suffered nothing but disappointments and despite Anne's infidelities she showed that she cared for him and he found that he cared for her too.

She was the only one he could confide his plans to and as a wife, she was not only a great bed mate but a great co-conspirator, the best.

When that boy and his Jedi brethren came to court claiming they came on behalf of their Galactic Senate to negotiate a peace between their worlds; Edward didn't mind him. He thought he was a fraud, a fake, no different than the corrupt vicars in the Catholic Church but soon they found this boy did have power.

Cromwell was the first to realize this when rebel pilgrims stormed the castle and were about to kill the King. Despite the policy of their senate of non intervention until the treaty was signed by all the monarchs in Earth, Anakin Skywalker rushed to help. Unleashing his lightsaber he cut all three of them but a fourth remained, the Marques of Exeter. Anakin Skywalker walked up to him and warned him to cease but with the King in his grasp he would not and screamed 'Death to all traitors'. And just as he was about to slash his throat, Anakin held up his hand and with a single movement of his head the King was released and the Marques was held up in the air for all to see.

Cromwell told the young Jedi Knight to release him but Anakin would not. He wanted to see his traitor gone as much as the King, and within a blink of an eye, the man's head turned and his neck snapped.

It was an impressive show of force, one that none other Jedi was capable of doing. It was here that Earth grew fearful of the young Jedi Knight. In every other world he was admired, called the Hero Without Fear but in Earth he was called the Anti-Christ, the Djin, the destroyer of worlds, Kalima, the terrible Old One.

Monarchs were wary of him and churches preached against him. Edward began to realize how dangerous he was when his attentions turned to the former Princess and she in turn, returned his affection tenfold.

He warned Mary but by then it was too late. She was completely infatuated and feeling betrayed by him, she began to see more of Anakin Skywalker with each visit he and his apprentice, Ashoka Tano made to Earth.

Edward held his breath every time he saw the arrogant Jedi and his former lover hand by hand, walking secretly in the gardens of Greenwich whispering to each other ear. Anakin Skywalker kissed her in such a way, making certain that Edward would see them, his meaning clear. You lost her, she is mine by now.

But as it was, Edward was not a man to forget easily and he hated the idea of giving up on something another man coveted. It didn't take him long enough to find out that Anakin Skywalker was married and that his apprentice had violated nearly every rule in the Jedi rule book and his wife on top of it was the renown Galactic Senator from Naboo, Padme Amidable of the Naberrie.

Ned smiled remembering how cruelly she had rebuked him telling him that Anakin would never betray her and that he was only jealous because she had what he and Anna could never have but he showed her proof, photos and voice recordings he'd gotten from one of the Chancellor's aides and when she heard these, her face fell and she was on her knees crying.

Ned tried to console her but she pushed him away, screaming she never wanted to see him again.

He didn't see her until the Senate fell and every Jedi and terrestrial royal was persecuted, among them his nephew. He smirked, remembering how he'd comforted Edward at the hour of his need telling him everything was going to be okay. Looking back he realized he had only prolonged the boy's suffering by giving him false hopes.

"I have not come here for vengeance, I don't need to, God is making you pay for everything you've done. I've come here for your daughter instead because I know what type of future she will have if she grows up with you or Anakin."

"I love my daughter, I would never give her to that monster."

"You would. You want power so much you'd be willing to sell your own church. Your daughter is in my hands now and so are your other ones." Mary's head snapped up. "You thought I didn't know? The records on Polis Masa show you gave birth to triplets the same day that Anakin's wife gave birth to twins. One went to Obi Wan, another with you, what happened to the third one?"

"It died."

Edward smirked. "No, you are not good at lying. Where is she Mary?" He said gripping her shoulders, shaking her.

"I don't know, I don't know. Obi Wan said he would take her somewhere safe, I don't know where she is."

Edward looked pointedly at her and saw she was telling the truth. He let her go and spun around walking away.

"Edward, I am so sorry. Please don't take my daughter away."

Edward didn't answer, he kept walking away. When he was at the door he hesitated. It was tempting, he almost turn around but a voice in his head reminded him of what she had done and he continued on his way, closing the metallic door behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

_da dude is back in the game._

Anakin Skywalker was a menace from the start, he saw it, his wife saw it, everyone with a brain saw it. Their king insisted in his stay, he was the only Jedi he liked and he pondered on what it would be to have the chosen one -if the prophecies about him being the destined one were true- as his son in law. Anne Boleyn had warned him against it, his own sister had too but he didn't listen. It was up to Edward to protect their realm.

He made inquires about Anakin's relatives, his mother, his alleged 'force' father, any little thing he could find that would discredit Anakin Skywalker and get him and the Jedi out of Earth for good. But he found nothing. He had a clean record, the cleanest he had encountered. He was a slave and his mother was a slave as well who had recently been freed and married (for the first time) her former employer.

Just how did a woman manage to remain single all those years and without being raped was a wonder.

He dug deeper. He read all the Jedi files that talked about the prophecy. None mentioned a virgin birth. He asked Jocastu Nuu, the Jedi librarian if there was any other prophecy that mentioned it, perhaps one the Jedi had overlooked but she shook her head.

_"I've never believed in such things"_ she said taking out a big black leather book from an old section of the library. "It has been so long since we've consulted our older books. To you this seems a novelty but to us it's a shame. Books are to be experience, felt, now they are just heard and downloaded into your brain. No effort, no thinking, the computers do it all for you." She made a disgruntled noise and handed the book to Edward.

Edward spent all afternoon researching it, comparing it to the other Jedi books. So far none talked about a Virgin birth, it was all about one blessed with the force but then ... There it was!

_It is said that before the universe there was nothing. This is false. There was something. There is always something. The ancients called it chaos, a strong force that rules in the nothingness that is filled with immense and unstable energy. Countless cultures explain for the creation of the universe with the story that chaos became too unstable and split into many pieces creating first the planets, then the moons, then the stars. This of course is nothing but pure myth but it has some true in it._

_Our Jedi scientists are able to map the universe, or the 'Nothing' as it was once known. From one unstable atom our universe came into being. Just how this atom came to be unstable still puzzles us_. Edward took notes, finding all this interesting. For a moment, he forgot all about the Prophecy but then a line caught his attention.

_Whether, god, gods, or deities, several species have always believed that the genetic pure-breeding will lead to an eventful creation of the perfect being. This pseudo-science has been taken out from medical books and its practice is illegal. Nevertheless, the Old Republic Intelligence has detected several facilities, among them Kamino's twin factory in the Outer Rim that manufacture everything from positronic brain implants to nano-rejuvenating-robots. The latter have been adopted by Senators to keep themselves in office permanently. Chancellor Valorum has increased vigilance on every member of the Senate but there is little progress being done to stop these illegal practices._

_The most successful though is perhaps the most unknown. Kwizas Haderach, in the old language before Basic -the perfect being. Before the Jedi Order when space travel was heavily relied on genetically engineered humanoids, there was an order of women who called themselves the Bene Gesserit. Their order like the Jedi order, had a council that consisted of twelve members that regulated everything their order did. But unlike their modern counterparts to which they evolved, they had a superior leader. The Jedi don't as they have no need for these things. Their order consists of egalitarian participation, a more evolved form of democracy._

_The leader of the Benne Gesserit was known as Great Reverend Mother and it was through her that all laws -after decided by the Council- were passed. There is not much known about this order. After they Hyperspace Wars many history records were lost but two names remain important. The first ..._

_Edward blinked. He opened, closed, and opened his eyes again. No it couldn't be. But it was. The name was there just as plain as day. It was the name of his great ancestress. But how could it be? Maybe it was just a coincidence. He skipped through the name and continued reading._

_The Great Reverent Mother [...] believed that the creation of this Kwizas Haderach would bring peace and stability through their order. The Benne Gesserit had been suffered from internal division through years. Their female members were not allowed to marry but were offered as concubines and pleasure wives instead to procreate the perfect desired heirs for their rich partners. These men of money did not advocate nor did they follow any of the Benne Gesserit's teachings but they did contribute to their order's banks [...] _  
_It is not known when, but somewhere in the twelfth century after its founding, the Order went through great changes and it eventually split into two then it came back into being one but it was not the same as before. The new Benne Gesserit Order had been renamed. It was now known as Honored Benne Gesserit and it was not just the name that changed but its hierarchy as well. Instead of having a Great Reverend Mother, it had three, and the Council played a more prominent role. Very soon the three leader system would system would disappear and the Council would be all that remained of this order, and the order itself would disappear and become diversified with not only men being allowed but other species as well._

_One thing however, was never forgotten and this is where many Jedi scholars debate amongst themselves if too much knowledge is dangerous._

_The Benne Gesserit's belief in the Kwizas Haderach was never forgotten. The first Jedi masters believed that the Jedi Order could benefit from this if they created their own Kwizas Haderach and reading on Serena Butler's journal, scientist and founder of the first Benne Gesserits; they set upon recruiting their first candidates. For a hundred years Jedis interbred with each other and kept a journal, writing on their children's development but it was soon obvious that none of these descendants were the famed Kwizas Haderach. The project was soon abandoned. No reasons are given as to why but other scholars amongst them myself, have speculated that something must have gone terribly wrong in those one hundred years of experiments that must have resulted in some terrible anomaly. Us in the scientific world shudder to think as to what might have happened to any of those children. The modern Jedi Order are known for their magnanimity, but to anyone who has read on the first Jedi order, they will know no mercy would have been spared on those children who would have been considered abominations._

_Prior to the rise of the Sith Lord, Revan. There was a group within the Jedi Order, composed of rebellious youths, that believed the Jedis had gone back against their first teachings and they dedicated themselves to the teachings of the Jedis' precursors, the Benne Gesserit. After the Jedi discovered their practices, they expelled every one of these members but two. These two are not named and they are only mentioned again once, after the first war with the Sith in which the Jedi were victorious._

_The Hyperspace Wars destroyed most of the historical record, wiping all knowledge of the Kwizas Haderach and the first Jedi Order's illegal practices. But the remaining Sith never forgot about these teachings and those who still had in their possession copies of the old texts, made their own copies and distributed them to every member of their order. One of these was Revan, a Jedi exile who became so intrigued with the old order's teachings that he began doing his own experiments. But like the rest, he was defeated and his experiments failed [...] So we come to the inevitable conclusion: Can such being be created?_

_The answer by any moral hygienist would be no. By any scientist it would be yes. With the right knowledge of the force, and mastering of the mind, and the right tools, anything is possible. Darth Revan's only mistake was in not mastering the first two. He believed the force was nothing when compared to great machinery but that is where he got it wrong. Our bodies are riddled with dark matter, otherwise known as the force. There are beings with a higher midi-chlorian count that are more evolved than others, if they would mate with someone who is the same as they, the possibilities are endless. In our lifetime we might not see it, but the next generations will see it: The first stages of human evolution._

Edward's hands trembled. He closed the book and hid it underneath his mattress. God save him if anyone were to discover it. The experiments it described, the children who had been sacrificed for personal and scientific gain ... It was too much.

But more frightening was the mention of this chosen one, this fabled Kwizas Haderach and the next era its birth would usher in. Just imagine -he could hear the book's speaker voice- a being created purely out of the wielding of dark energy. Such thing is possible, my book says so. Why deny it? A being as highly evolved as the Sith would know how to master these powers. The women of the old Order like the Benne Gesserit could rearrange their bodies' chemistry to create how many children they wanted. Male or female, it didn't matter. It gave them a sense of empowerment that your species' males could not tolerate.

_**Imagine a woman who was untrained but frightened, and just had her first sexual encounter with a powerful Sith. How would she react?**_

_**Come on Edward you know.**_

_She would be frightened._

**_Aye, she would. She would deny there ever being a sexual encounter, she would say anything to rid herself from that awful memory. She would make up a story, or better yet, convince herself that there never was any rape, that it was all her imagination._**

_But there was a child._

**_She would say it was a miracle. What woman wants to think a child of rape was a miracle? It's better not to think of it. If you convince yourself that things are as you want them to be, nothing else is wrong with the world._****_Ignorance is bliss my friend._**

_Aye, it is._ Edward agreed. He lay on the bed, waiting for Anne to come then shut his eyes. He dreamed of Anakin's mother, Shmni Skywalker being surrounded by this omnipresent dark figure, they all now knew too well, taking her against her will and afterwards, lying on the floor, crying and bruised, she put a hand on her stomach and whispered the words 'Don't be like them' then fell unconscious.

That had been five years ago. Edward had given his findings to his brother in law, the King of England, but he dismissed as pure hoax and anti Jedi propaganda. There was nothing wrong with Anakin, he was the perfect Jedi, and -he insisted- the perfect suitor.

Ha! He laughed at the last one.

Perfect suitor.

_I have been there for his daughter ever since he disregarded in favor of the concubine's daughter. I was there whispering in Jane's ear what he wanted to hear, advocating for her rights, pushing for her restorations. And what did he do? He gave me a lousy title and even lousier position after my nephew was born._

His lover never noticed him except when Anakin Skywalker was away, and even then she was only with him for comfort. -I love you- She said. -I love you with all my heart-

Lying bitch. He swore under his breath. Women. It was no wonder those Benne Gesserit whores were eradicated from the face of the galaxy. They were all liars and daughters of Even, purveyors of sin. No good came from them.

One had taken his heart and crushed it, another had pieced it back together and crushed it again and the last one, the worst of all three, had crushed his heart and his soul.

Damn her. But he had shown her. A twisted smile graced his lips. He had taken her daughter and placed her in a far away facility where she would never see her daughter again.

* * *

Katherine wiped her tears. Her mother would not want to see her cry. She always said brave girls don't cry. But how was she supposed to go on when she didn't have her mother by her side?

"Mommy" She said, it came out as a sob and she gathered both legs together and hugged them close to her chest.

What was she going to do now? She always had her mother by her side to rely on. She didn't trust this man Seymour. He was a bad man just like the other bad men her mommy had warned her about.

"Mommy." She repeated again and closed her eyes. In her fairy tales, the Prince always came back to rescue his fair lady or the Princess from the angry dragon. It was the staple of every fairy tale. The Princess always lived happily ever after.

Nobody was going to rescue her. She had no father. She had no idea who her father was until she was three. He was a fighter pilot, a famous Jedi who had left her mother to be with his wife, but her mother insisted that he loved her and that if it wasn't for the bad woman he was forced to marry, he would be with them protecting them.

Katherine didn't know how much of this was true. Edward Seymour told her Jedi were not allowed to marry but her mother insisted that her father had married but it was done against his will and before he met her. "If he had known me then, he would never have married that little tramp."

Her mother always spoke of her father's wife with such hatred. Sometimes it scared Katherine. She asked her what was so bad about her -besides the fact that she was his wife. Her mother responded that she was scheming, shady, and corrupt, and that every Senator hated her because she was pretentious and had bought her way into the throne of Naboo and then the Senate, and thought herself better than anyone.

Katherine had asked her mother if they had children. The thought of having siblings had always irked her, she loved being an only child but after nearly being caught by Imperial forces, she began to desire for siblings. When her mother wasn't there for her, her brothers and sisters would be. They would be her friends and protectors if they were older than her, and she, like with her mother, could always rely on them.

But her mother spoke with the same hatred. They were not her siblings. Her father's children with _that woman_ were nothing but her half-siblings and they were not really her family.

_"I am your family Kathy, I am your only family and I will always be here with you."_ She had said and these words brought her to tears, reminding her of her present situation.

She did not want to be special. She wanted to be a normal person like the rest of them. It dawned on her that if she hadn't been born with powers or to the hero with no fear, none of this would be happening. She would just be another shameless daughter of a shamed royal. Nothing more.

Tears escaped from her eyes and she cried herself to sleep.

* * *

"Luke it's getting dark, you know how dangerous it is at night!"

"Coming Aunt Beru! I just want to see the sun-sets. I promised Biggs I would take a picture of them. I've never seen them at this time of night."

"Luke I won't tell you again. You come down this instant!" Luke sighed and ran down, forgetting to pick up his camera.

"Where is your sister?"

"Here" Luna said coming from behind Luke. "You left your holo camera outside dufus!"

"Luna that is not nice. Apologize to Luke."

"Sorry Luke..." she said then added in a low voice when Beru turned "Idiot."

Luke stuck his tongue out at her, but she stuck hers back. "Aunt Beru!"

"You two stop it, your supper is getting cold." Luke and Luna obeyed their Aunt and sat next to each other. Beru always had trouble telling them apart when they were younger. They looked like mirror images of each other. With their pale faces, sky blue eyes, and sandy blond hair. As they got older it became easier to tell them apart, but even so, Luke and Luna would have their little pranks on Beru and Owen dressing in each others' clothes so they couldn't be told apart.

"Eat up you too. Tomorrow Owen is going to take you to see Biggs. Luna remember to be nice to him."

"I am nice to him Aunt Beru." She said innocently but Beru made a face at her. "Ok, so the prank I played on him was not fun, but he deserved it for confusing me with Luke."

"That was all your fault. You are always dressing as me on purpose. I don't get it why you do it."

Luna rolled her eyes. Her brother could be so dumb sometimes. Must be with being twins. One gets to have the brains, the other just the looks. Thank the force for her, she had been blessed with both. "You just said it dingus, I get to put you in trouble to make your life fun, otherwise you would spend all your evenings with Uncle Owen repairing the vaporators."

"There is nothing boring in that. I like repairing things."

"You must be the only one then ... OW!"

Luke kicked her in the foot. Luna sprung to her feet and smacked the back on his head.

"Alright that is enough you two! You go to bed early." Beru said, her voice carrying its usual sweetness, but with a tone of strictness.

The Skywalker twins grumbled and went to bed grudgingly, complaining that it was the other one's fault. Once in bed -because they could never find themselves sleeping separately- Luke asked her if she dreamed about their mother again.

"Yes." She said.

"How is she?"

"I don't know, it doesn't make sense. When you mention her, I always picture this dark haired woman with beautiful kind but sad brown eyes looking up at you, but whenever I go to sleep I see this ..."

"Ugly woman?"

"No."

"Then?"

"That is the strangest thing. She is different, not the same kind of beautiful as our mother but more beautiful. But she is looking down on me with eyes of hatred and regret. I can't explain it. I only know that when I see her, I feel intimidated, scared, more than I've ever felt in my life."

Luke moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. "Maybe if you tell me about her, it won't bother you so much."

"Maybe." She agreed and told him. "She has red hair-"

"Like fire?"

"Yes, exactly like fire. It's very beautiful, when I saw her I thought she was one of those fire goddesses the peoples from the East Dunes used to worship." They laughed at this. "But her face wasn't as kind as the statues of those goddesses. Whenever she looked at me, I could see the hatred burning through her eyes."

"What color were they?"

"Blue. Not pale blue like our sky, but lighter, shinier." She said. When she'd first looked on those eyes, she was reminded of the tales of the first people that settled here and the primitive sandworms from where they took out their spice. It everywhere. In the air, their water, and the food they ate. They developed shiny blue eyes that distinguished them from the other human populations in the galaxy; some legends spoke that this substance made them special and gave them special powers but no one believes that.

"And her face? Was it kinder?"

She shook her head. "No. It was definitely fairer than our mother's but not kinder. She bore the same expression there as she did in her eyes."

"She sounds beautiful though and you say you dream about her constantly. Maybe it's the Force, or a spice dream. Maybe it's telling you that she is our mother."

"She is not." She said firmly but her brother went on.

"Who is to say spice wasn't taken out of Tattoine? Maybe it's given you special powers to dream of the past."

"Don't be saying nonsense Luke." Luna said with a chuckle turning to her twin brother. "They are just dreams, they mean nothing special. Probably I dreamed of an ancestress or maybe of the future. Who knows? Maybe it's nothing. Our mother, our true mother loved us and she died giving birth to us. She gave her life just to have us." Luke looked unconvinced. "The lady in my dreams is a cold beauty whose heart is just as cold and filled with hatred. She is nothing to us, now let's go to sleep." She said with a tone of finality and knowing better than to argue with her, Luke heeded her commands.

* * *

_dude decided to mix his other favorite saga, dune and asimov._


	3. Chapter 3

_da dude is back in the game._

Anakin Skywalker was always afraid of the dark. He hated the dark more than everything, it reminded him of the inevitability of life and that all things were not destined to last. When he was little his mother used to sing to him and stand by his bedside, and wait until he fell sleep. When he was a Jedi apprentice his master would sing to him as well, for a while at least. When he was old enough to go on mission, he stopped and on his first mission when they saved his old love interest, Obi Wan told him that it was time for him to grow up. The person they battled against had been a strong opponent. One of the many wanna-bes Sith that Lord Sidious had at his disposal. What they didn't know was that this Sith wanna-be apprentice was in reality Obi Wan's best friend and former love interest, Siri Taichi.

Obi Wan saved her, or so he said to himself to absolve himself of her murder; and before she died she told him 'Don't be like them.' At the time they both interpreted it as don't grow to be a Sith, later on as Anakin's understanding of the Republic evolved, he realized what it meant.

Don't turn like the Jedi.

The Jedi had been protectors of the galaxy but they protected whoever they wanted and whenever they wanted. In the end they weren't all that different from the politicians they fought.

Anakin's major disappointment however, was when he and Obi Wan had fought over the issue of marriage. He tried to convince himself that that wasn't the turning point but it was. Even if he had been disappointed when he had been asked by the Council to spy on his old friend (then) Chancellor Palpatine, he would not have been as disappointed as when Obi Wan confessed to him that he had been so close to marry the Duchess Satine.

What stopped you? He had asked. He said that it had been love. His love for her had been stronger than his duty and he was so close to do it but when he was approaching the altar he decided not to. He left a note on Satin's bedroom explaining why he had to go and why they could never be anything other than Jedi and politician. Those were their roles in life, it had been the roles they had been assigned by the Force and it was their duty to follow them.

He could never understand how his master was capable of such thing, leaving his love one behind like that. But then again, Obi Wan was always like that. Duty over the heart. Anakin could never have done that. He never did. He preferred a thousand deaths and a thousand tortures over leaving Padme there in the altar -abandoned and heartbroken.

But you did leave someone else heartbroken.

Vader sighed deeply through his breathing mask.

That had not been someone I loved. And I was married -He said to himself.

Nevertheless, he wondered how life would have been if he had chosen her instead of Padme. Would he had been happier?

No. He would have been just as miserable as he was now. He might as well have no wife. He thought with dark humor.

Mary was not what you called a charitable soul. Although she did give a lot to the poor. she was not empathetic to human suffering as Padme had been. She didn't understand him as she had. Padme had been his soul-mate, his other half. Mary had been ...

Just another body to keep his bed warm.

Darth Vader looked down on his metallic dark gloved hands. For a minute he imagined himself in both women's chambers, each greeting him with a different smile, each telling him how much they loved him, pledging to love no one but him. He had failed them both.

He should have never fallen for either of them. He had brought them nothing but pain.

Mary had told him she was pregnant and he grew scared. Padme was also heavily pregnant at the time but he chose to stay with her instead and be a responsible father instead of Mary's baby. What had happened to it? He wondered after he had been put in this goddamned suit.

The Emperor had told him that she had escaped and the baby was likely dead. Like Padme, he refused to believe it. He had lost Padme and their child, but he would not lose this one. In Mary's son, he had the chance of being the father he never had with Padme. But no sooner had he felt her presence, he felt an emptiness in her heart that could only mean she had miscarried or the child was dead.

Everything you love is gone Anakin. He heard his mentor's voice, mocking him. Everything you love is gone and it's because of your old greed.

"Leave me!" He told the force ghost.

Qui Gon did not leave. He told his old friend that he still had time to make things right. "You can have the chance to live again-"

"You call this living?!" He yelled pointing to his mask.

"Go away Qui Gon. I don't need you or your Jedi lectures. I am fine the way I am." He said and spun around again, focusing on the task at hand which was to find the fugitive terrestrials and put an end to their royal line once and for all.

Nothing of Mary will remain. Nothing. He promised himself.

"As you wish." Qui Gon said. "But I will come back again."

"Do it. I won't listen to you." Vader said.

Qui Gon disappeared and Vader looked back, sighing inwardly with big relief at the ghost's disappearance.

Just one more mission and he could finally bury his past with Mary, with Padme, with everyone that had once known him as Anakin Skywalker, the Hero With No Fear.


End file.
